Hello everyone...
Since LEDs have been a bit of a hot topic around here lately (and with good reason), I thought I would do a short review on what is probably the most accessible LED fixture on the market right now--and by that I mean it comes in different sizes, it's "plug and play," and is sold at a lot of places.
I got the 18" double bright model.
It retails for $80 at Foster and Smith. I actually got mine for free through a package deal with a new tank, so I won't comment much on the price.
First impressions are it's well built, and the packaging was nice. It is very sleek looking IMO. You can extend the brackets on the side to fit a larger size tank (24" in the case of the 18" fixture). You can also remove them completely to lay the fixture flat on top of a glass/acrylic surface.
I am not crazy about the leg design, but they are nice enough. They're black and made of metal, for the record. They were a bit difficult to extend right out of the box, but this was expected. When you pull them out completely, there isn't anything that locks the legs in.
The power cord is separate from the fixture, and plugs into the side of the unit. I don't particularly like this design. The plug that goes into your wall is large rectangular two prong design (I'm not great with electronic terminology), but it was a bit of a pain to fit on my powerstrip as it needs space. Also, the fixture has blue moonlights built in, but they run on a single switch. You either run the white LEDs and the blue moonlights together, or just the blue. You cannot set the lights up to a timer to automatically switch from the regular lights to the moonlights due to this design, and you cannot disable the blue moonlights at all out of the box.
I wished they had wired it with two plugs, one for the main lights and the other for blue so you could set it up on a timer.
The light it puts out is decent. I don't know the PAR readings or anything (anyone want to chime in on this?) but I know it wouldn't do much for plants. I put it over a 12" high tank and it looked very nice, and a 24" high tank and it was noticeably dimmer (as expected, I suppose). It does have the nice shimmering effect of LEDs. It runs cool to the touch all the time.
My overall feelings about this fixture are this:
-Pros: Nice looking fixture, price is so-so, quality is decent, and the light looks nice on a shallow tank (I'm sure a bigger model and/or more of them would fix this some for taller tanks). As with all LEDs the bulbs consume much less electricity and run cooler than traditional fluorescent lights.
-Cons: The moonlight power switch wiring thing annoys me. I feel like the reflectors could be a bit better designed--on a glass top a bit of light peeks out of the fixture above the aquarium and that annoys me, personally. It doesn't put out that much light.
In conclusion, I would recommend this fixture if you are looking for a simple and sleek fixture for a non-planted display tank where you're going for a bit dimmer/concentrated light look, or maybe for additonal effect lighting for your current setup. It is definitely an entry-level unit, but I think it has it's value for certain setups. I think it will work great on my CA Cichlid setup that is just going to be wood/rocks/sand with a bit of darkness towards the edges. I personally like that look.
If you are looking for something super bright, or something to grow plants, I would invest the money in a more powerful setup. Let me know if you guys have any other questions, and feel free to add your own thoughts and pictures of your tank if you own one too.
Since LEDs have been a bit of a hot topic around here lately (and with good reason), I thought I would do a short review on what is probably the most accessible LED fixture on the market right now--and by that I mean it comes in different sizes, it's "plug and play," and is sold at a lot of places.
I got the 18" double bright model.
It retails for $80 at Foster and Smith. I actually got mine for free through a package deal with a new tank, so I won't comment much on the price.
First impressions are it's well built, and the packaging was nice. It is very sleek looking IMO. You can extend the brackets on the side to fit a larger size tank (24" in the case of the 18" fixture). You can also remove them completely to lay the fixture flat on top of a glass/acrylic surface.
I am not crazy about the leg design, but they are nice enough. They're black and made of metal, for the record. They were a bit difficult to extend right out of the box, but this was expected. When you pull them out completely, there isn't anything that locks the legs in.
The power cord is separate from the fixture, and plugs into the side of the unit. I don't particularly like this design. The plug that goes into your wall is large rectangular two prong design (I'm not great with electronic terminology), but it was a bit of a pain to fit on my powerstrip as it needs space. Also, the fixture has blue moonlights built in, but they run on a single switch. You either run the white LEDs and the blue moonlights together, or just the blue. You cannot set the lights up to a timer to automatically switch from the regular lights to the moonlights due to this design, and you cannot disable the blue moonlights at all out of the box.
I wished they had wired it with two plugs, one for the main lights and the other for blue so you could set it up on a timer.
The light it puts out is decent. I don't know the PAR readings or anything (anyone want to chime in on this?) but I know it wouldn't do much for plants. I put it over a 12" high tank and it looked very nice, and a 24" high tank and it was noticeably dimmer (as expected, I suppose). It does have the nice shimmering effect of LEDs. It runs cool to the touch all the time.
My overall feelings about this fixture are this:
-Pros: Nice looking fixture, price is so-so, quality is decent, and the light looks nice on a shallow tank (I'm sure a bigger model and/or more of them would fix this some for taller tanks). As with all LEDs the bulbs consume much less electricity and run cooler than traditional fluorescent lights.
-Cons: The moonlight power switch wiring thing annoys me. I feel like the reflectors could be a bit better designed--on a glass top a bit of light peeks out of the fixture above the aquarium and that annoys me, personally. It doesn't put out that much light.
In conclusion, I would recommend this fixture if you are looking for a simple and sleek fixture for a non-planted display tank where you're going for a bit dimmer/concentrated light look, or maybe for additonal effect lighting for your current setup. It is definitely an entry-level unit, but I think it has it's value for certain setups. I think it will work great on my CA Cichlid setup that is just going to be wood/rocks/sand with a bit of darkness towards the edges. I personally like that look.
If you are looking for something super bright, or something to grow plants, I would invest the money in a more powerful setup. Let me know if you guys have any other questions, and feel free to add your own thoughts and pictures of your tank if you own one too.
